Best Coffee Alternatives

How To Get Your Caffeine Fix Without Reaching For A Cup Of Coffee

In today’s world, we are always on the go. “Busy” is the new, standard response to inquiries about how we are doing, and we spend a lot of time working. In fact, Americans work more hours than the English and French and way more than the Germans or Norwegians. Oh yeah, we also take less vacation, work longer days, and retire later, too.

So essentially, in case this hasn’t sunk in, we are busy.

So how do we keep going? For some, there are things like getting enough sleep each night, having a healthy diet, and exercising that help keep them alert and on the go.

For the rest of us, there is coffee. Coffee has become synonymous with “morning” and “awake” for many of us.

What if you didn’t want coffee though, but still wanted to give yourself that energy? Well, I set out to see how that might work. This took me to some weird places, but at the end of the day I pulled together some non-liquid caffeine options to help you get up, out and active, all day long.

Here they are, in no particular order.

GO Cubes

Go Cubes started out last summer as an Indiegogo project, focused on making gummy coffee cubes a reality because coffee, some would argue, is just too damn wet. According to Go Cubes’ website, one serving is two GO CUBES, which is about the same caffeine content as 1 cup of coffee (100 mg). A single serving generally lasts for about 4-6 hours. What’s more is that through Nootrobox's R&D, they’ve been able to reduce the jitters and anxiety that caffeine sometimes gives rise to. In fact, Go Cubes even share some of the core active ingredients with most energy drinks, including elements like glucuronolactone, folic acid, and Vitamin B6. So now you don’t need to stress about having that second cup of coffee in the afternoon, or slowing down your morning. Just grab a pack of the cubes, throw ‘em in your pocket, and you’re good to go. The bitter taste takes a bit of time to get over, but the overall energy boost is pretty intense, almost more than coffee.

Perk Caffeine Bracelet

Here's a novel delivery method: the Perk caffeine bracelet uses transdermal caffeine patches that fit onto the inside of a Perk bracelet to deliver caffeine directly into your bloodstream via your skin. The caffeine is delivered in a consistent dose, which helps users avoid energy crashes and jitters, which coffee drinkers are now generally familiar with. At this point you’re probably thinking, wait what? That’s fair. As Perk writes on their IndieGoGo, “transdermal administration of chemicals, of any type, provides a controlled release through the user's skin as their body heat melts away the thin layers of formulation embedded in the adhesive patch.

The main disadvantage to transdermal delivery systems stems from the fact that the skin is a very effective barrier; as a result, only chemicals whose molecules are small enough to penetrate the skin can be delivered by this method.” Caffeine is one of these. I gave Perk a shot this past week, and noticed that by the time I had gotten on the subway from my Brooklyn apartment to Union Square, I definitely was more awake than when I left, without any of the jitters that sometimes accompanied my massive dose of morning caffeine intake. That being said, I’ve become somewhat addicted to my first cup of coffee punching me in the face, so the gradual and measured administration of caffeine definitely lacked that quality for me.

Spazzstick

For those of us that have chapped lips during winter, there is a product that can fix that and your caffeine urges. Spazzstick is a lip balm that also contains quantities of caffeine, which is absorbed directly through your lips as you use it. This is a transdermal application method that is similar to the one described previously for Perk Patches. According to the product’s website, it was developed by an Alaskan police officer, who needs both quality lip balm for the cold and the ability to stay awake during long shifts. Right now they offer vanilla/toffee Spazzstick and Mint Spazzstick, but are also working on cherry and orange. I wasn’t able to test Spazzstick, but the concept itself is pretty interesting, and really makes me question why we really only get caffeine from coffee when it can be “consumed” in so many other ways.

Wake Up On Time Pills

These guys are essentially slow release caffeine pills that you take before going to bed, and then activate a couple of hours later, slowly releasing caffeine and other elements so that when you wake up, you’re actually awake, not in that zombified state of “oh god please let me stay in bed, just five more minutes.” The pills were developed by Cathy Beggan (together with a team of chemists), a mother of three children who struggled with the act of getting out of bed come morning. As she talked to more people she realized (surprise) that she wasn’t alone in struggling with this issue, and began working to find an "all-natural" solution. A proponent of natural medicines, over time, Cathy and her team developed a formula that includes ingredients such as Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, and their Synergistic and Proprietary blend (Guarana seed extract, L-Tyrosine, Eleuthero Root Extract, also known to some as Siberian Ginseng). Reviews in places such as the New York Daily News and other outlets have found the pills to be surprisingly effective. That being said, not all sleep experts are convinced. "I don't know of anything that indicates that these ingredients are helpful in improving daytime function when taken at night," Dr. Gary Zammit, director of the Sleep Disorder Institute in Manhattan and clinical associate professor at Columbia University, told New York Daily News in 2008.

So the next time you decide you’re over coffee, or are looking for an alternative way to keep on the daily grind, these are a few options you can consider that deliver your jolt in a variety of different formats.

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